We present a list of 10 Documentaries you cannot miss at the 18th Mumbai Film Festival that will take place from October 20th – 27th in Mumbai, India.
An Insignificant Man by Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla – India | 2016 – 96 min.
Documentary | Section: The India Story
At the heart of An Insignificant Man is the most polarising man in India today – Arvind Kejriwal. Filmed over the course of 2 years, this film is a portrait of power, corruption and a controversial man. The film gives an insider’s view into Arvind Kejriwal’s brand of politics which has been labelled selfish, dangerous, anarchic and yet revolutionary. Shaking the country’s most powerful political establishments with basic public issues like water, electricity, and graft, Kejriwal has emerged as the leader of the newest political force in India – the Common Man’s Party. With never-before-seen footage, the film offers a unique insight into a fledgling political party’s battle between survival and extinction in the largest democracy in the world. Capturing moments of triumph and despair, the film is a moving cinematic journey through the narrow lanes of Delhi’s shantytowns to the closed corridors of political power.
Schedule
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 8:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 4 177 – 5:50 pm
Cecilia by Pankaj Johar – India | 2015 – 97min.
Documentary | Section: The India Story
Cecilia hails from India’s neglected tribal belt and works as a housekeeper in New Delhi. When her 14 year old daughter is trafficked and found dead in a house in Delhi, she decides to fight for justice with the help of her employers Pankaj and Sunaina. However in a country where thousands of tribal children get trafficked every year to cities and many are never found, the road to justice seems long and slow. As Cecilia and her employers battle corruption at all levels, they soon find themselves navigating a complex network of cops, traffickers, judges, lawyers, villagers and family members.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 4 177 – 5:00 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 5:30 pm
India in a day by Richie Mehta – India | 2016 – 86 min.
Documentary | Section: Special Section
This extraordinary film answers the question – what does it mean to live in India today? Made entirely from crowd sourced footage, the film is directed by Richie Mehta, executive produced by Ridley Scott and Anurag Kashyap, and in partnership with Google and Scott Free Films.
In October 2015, ordinary people across India were asked to film their lives to capture who they are, their dreams and aspirations. People responded in their thousands, submitting more than 16,000 videos, containing over 365 hours of deeply personal, heartfelt, and joyfully honest moments. In India, Zoya Akhtar, R. Balki and Shekhar Kapur lent their support to the project by appearing in call out videos and spreading the word on social media. The music was composed by Oscar-winning composer Stephen Warbeck, and the film was edited by Beverley Mills, and produced by Jack Arbuthnott and Cassandra Sigsgaard.
Footage came from all over India; from Rajasthan to Kerala to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The resulting film offers a remarkable insight into the lives, loves, fears and hopes of people living in India today. The concept of the film is based on the 2010 film Life in a Day, which was produced by Scott Free and YouTube. It used footage shot by people from 192 countries around the world who filmed their day on 24th July, 2010.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 1 236 – 7:30 pm
Lo and Behold: Reveries of the Connected Worldwide by Werner Herzog – US | 98 min.
Documentary | Section: World Cinema
In Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World, legendary director Werner Herzog chronicles the virtual world from its origins to its outermost reaches, exploring the digital landscape with the same curiosity and imagination he previously trained on earthly destinations as disparate as the Amazon, the Sahara, the South Pole and the Australian outback. Herzog leads viewers on a journey through a series of provocative conversations that reveal how our existence online has transformed and altered the course of our ‘real’ life – from business to education, space travel to healthcare and how we conduct our personal relationships.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 5 216 – 8:45 pm
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 5 216 – 8:30 pm
10.25.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 5:15 pm
Remembering Kurdi by Saumyananda Sahi – India | 2016 – 64 min.
Documentary | Section: India Gold
The Salaulim Dam that submerged the Kurdi census town in South Goa, over three decades ago, forced 550 families to relocate and forge new lives elsewhere.
However, every year the waters recede and the ruins resurface for a few short weeks before the rains. During this time, past inhabitants return to what is left of their homes, to perform rituals, have picnics and remember their dead.
Gurucharan Kurdikar has vivid memories of his childhood in Kurdi – but now lives in a city far away. Venisha Fernandes was born after the submergence, but has grown up listening to stories of a lost paradise. Both return to search for where they belong – in places imagined and places real.
Schedule
10.24.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 4 177 – 5:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 12:30 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 2 220 – 1:00 pm
The Baulkham Hills African Ladies Troupe by Ros Horin – Australia | 2016 – 81 min.
Documentary | Section: World Cinema
Four African Australian women, all victims of sexual abuse and violence, take on the difficult challenge of telling and performing their stories in a professional theatre production. The film charts their journeys over a five-year period from their painful beginnings in exploratory workshops in 2011, through to the eventual triumph of their theatre show in sold-out seasons in Sydney, and then a performance at the WOW Festival (Women of the World) at the iconic Southbank Centre in London in 2015.
Schedule
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 10:30 am
10.24.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 4:15 pm
10.27.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 4 312 – 3:30 pm
The Cinema Travellers by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya – India | 2016 – 96 min.
Documentary | Section: India Gold
Cannes prize-winning The Cinema Travellers is a journey with the traveling cinemas of India, which bring the wonder of the movies to faraway villages annually. Seven decades on, as their lorries and cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, their audiences are lured by slick digital technology. Filmed over five years, The Cinema Travellers accompanies a shrewd exhibitor, a benevolent showman and a maverick projector mechanic who bear a beautiful burden – to keep the last traveling cinemas of the world running.
The only Indian feature film in the Official Selection at Cannes 2016, The Cinema Travellers garnered wide critical acclaim after its world premiere. Huffington Post celebrated it as “a masterpiece”, while Screen Daily declared, “Whatever masterpieces, if any, bow at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, it is likely none will communicate the excitement engendered by movies more headily than The Cinema Travellers.”
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 4 177 – 8:00 pm
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 4 216 – 10:00 am
10.27.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 2 217 – 3:15 pm
The Land of the Enlightened by Pieter-Jan de Pue
Belgium, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Afghanistan – 87 min.
Documentary | Section: International Competition
A gang of Afghan kids from the Kuchi tribe dig out old Soviet mines and sell these explosives to children working in a lapis lazuli mine. Another gang of children preserves a tight control on the caravans that smuggle blue gemstones through the arid mountains of Pamir. In this seamless blend of fiction and documentary, we experience a cinematic journey into the beauty of war-tormented Afghanistan. Shot over seven years on an evocative 16mm stock, first-time director Pieter-Jan De Pue paints a whimsical yet haunting look at the condition of Afghanistan left for the next generation.
Schedule
10.22.2016 – PVR ICOn Audi 2 220 – 1:45 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR Phoenix Audi 4 177 – 6:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR Mulund Audi 1 287 – 4:15 pm
The Lovers and the despot by Rob Cannan, Ross Adam – UK | 2016 – 94 min.
Documentary | Section: World Cinema
The film tells the story of a young, ambitious South Korean filmmaker Shin Sang-ok and actress Choi Eun-hee, who met and fell in love in 1950s in post-war Korea. In the ’70s, after reaching the top of Korean society, following a string of successful films, Choi was kidnapped in Hong Kong by North Korean agents and taken to meet Kim Jong-il. While searching for Choi, Shin also was kidnapped, and following five years of imprisonment, the couple was reunited in North Korea by the movie-obsessed Kim, who declared them his personal filmmakers. Choi and Shin planned their escape, but not before producing seventeen feature films for the dictator and gaining his trust in the process.
Schedule
10.21.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 3 216 – 3:45 pm
10.23.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 1 216 – 10:30 am
10.24.2016 – REGAL 1166 – 8:30 pm
When Two Worlds Collide by Heidi Brandenburg, Mathew Orzel – Peru, UK | 2016 – 103 min.
Documentary | Section: International Competition
The film situates itself directly in the line of fire between two powerful Peruvian leaders who are fighting over the future of the country. When president Alan Garcia attempts to extract oil and minerals from untouched Amazonian land with the hopes of elevating his country’s economic prosperity, he is met with a fierce, violent opposition led by indigenous leader Alberto Pizango. This leads to a conflict that quickly escalates from a heated war of words to one of deadly violence.
Schedule
10.22.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 4:30 pm
10.25.2016 – PVR ECX Audi 2 216 – 4:00 pm
10.26.2016 – PVR ICON Audi 1 236 – 6:00 pm
To know more about this festival visit the FESTIVAL PROFILE or go to the official webpage HERE.
Categories: Film Festival
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